May 2026

For your prayer and meditation this week:

“Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.

If one member suffers, all suffer together with it;

if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.”

-        1 Corinthians 12: 27, 26

To be one body means that we are not separate from one another.

Separateness is the grand illusion of the senses, and of our time.

Separateness is the illusion

that fuels profit-seeking companies to put profits

over people and the earth.

When I am separate from you,

then it is in my interest to profit as much as I can

at your expense.

Your happiness doesn’t much matter to me.

But if we are in fact One,

then your destiny is bound with mine.

Then Jesus could say that whenever we serve one of the least of these-

be it in prison, sick, hungry or thirsty, naked, or a stranger-

we are in fact serving him.

Our greatest delusion is not that we are separate from one another

but that we are separate from our Source.

Jesus knew his Oneness with the Creator; the Cosmic Beloved,

whom he affectionately called “Father.”

“Father,” Jesus prayed towards the end of his ministry,

“I ask…that they may all be one.

As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us.” (John 17: 20-21)

The Oneness Jesus knew with God

is a Oneness he invites us into.

Jesus is not the universal exception,

but the universal example.

From his Oneness with Divine love,

Jesus invites us to remember our Oneness with that same love.

It is because we forget that cosmic connection; that divine love,

that we hurt and exclude and judge each other.

For when we realize our Oneness with the Love that nothing can separate us from,

then we want to sing from the rooftops!

Then we organically want to be the instruments

for that love and Oneness to flow through.

That is why Jesus says that the greatest commandment

is to love God with our entire heart, mind, soul, and strength.

When we do that in Oneness,

then we will naturally do what Jesus says is the outgrowth of that:

“And a second (commandment) is like it,” Jesus says.

“You shall love your neighbor as you love yourself. 

On those two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” (Matthew 22: 39-40)

Friends, as we begin to wind down the program year at Bethany, we invite you to come enjoy the Bethany grounds and space in this beautiful spring season!  On the evening of Monday, June 15th, join us in the St. Anne Chapel for “Memoir as Discovery: How an Immigrant Story Informs the Present” with Rev Leyla King.  Leyla K. King is a Palestinian American Episcopal priest and writer. She is a founding member of Palestinian Anglicans and Clergy Allies (Palestiniananglicans.org) and The Small Churches Big Impact Collective. Currently, she serves as the Canon for Mission in Small Congregations for the Episcopal Diocese of West Texas.

As we discern our weekly meditation time this year, our Bethany House of Prayer planning team would like your feedback about what your preferred time would be starting in September.  We’ve very much enjoyed our weekly Friday morning meditations this year in the Chapel, which will continue through June.  Thanks for giving your feedback here:

Bethany House Friday Morning Meditation Questionnaire

In peace and gratitude,

Rev. Matt Carriker and LaToya Staine Carriker